Political EmpowHERment

  The first woman to lead the city's police force, Cerelyn C.J. Davis, had been hired by Memphis, Tennessee, city council members. Davis was chosen as the new head of the Memphis Police Department by the City Council and would have had a first day on the job on June 14, 2021.  Michael Rallings, who was retiring, was replaced by Davis. Davis, a former officer with the Atlanta Police Department, had been Durham, North Carolina's police chief since 2016. Jim Strickland, the mayor of Memphis, chose Davis because he felt that her experience as a leader in Atlanta and Durham made her stand out. In 2021, Davis had just recently started working there when she noticed that homicide rates were on the rise and heading for a record. In the downtown area close to her new residence, cars were frequently driving erratically late at night. To deal with the chaos, she had a strategy. A new unit called Scorpion, or Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, was established a...

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in the historic Roe v. Wade decision, upholding a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion . This case resolved that women in this country would be able to manage their own futures, make private and personal choices without political intrusion, and it also reemphasized fundamental equality principles and the fundamental right to privacy.  The landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, which had declared access to abortions a constitutional right, was overturned by the US Supreme Court on Friday, June 24, 2022. That ruling eliminated women's legal protection and made it possible for states to control or completely eliminate the right to an abortion all together. Abortion restrictions have already gone into effect in thirteen states. There are other states that are in the process. Abortion clinics in states where the procedure is still allowed are working to increase the number of appointments available by adding more clinic appoint...